Mary, ‘The Street Person'

Frequently we have “street people” ring the bell of the Rectory asking for money, small or more. Often they reject a sandwich with perhaps fruit or cookies and a drink for money with which to purchase drugs. It’s not our policy to give money at all. We direct them to where they can find help.

From time to time, one with gnawing hunger will gratefully accept our sandwich, often eating it on the stairs of the Church where the statue of Mary gazes down on him from above. This beloved statue has been gazing down at the passing human scene for decades, exposed day and night to all of the weather that Chicago can produce.

Imagine her compassion when she gazes down at her fellow “street person,” hungry and with no place to shelter from the storm just as she and Joseph when obscure and unknown strangers in Bethlehem searched door to door for kind help.

Why don’t you visit our statue of “Mary the Street Person” high above our front doors on Western Avenue? In gazing upward, your eyes and hers will meet.